Many chapters and SIGs have great ideas, and often an idea one chapter or SIG has might be something the leadership thinks could be helpful to other STC communities. When that happens, email me about it and I’ll pass it along. Today we bring you an email by the STC Alberta chapter discussing membership renewal, sent by chapter President Jessie Channey. It's reprinted below with her permission for other communities to adapt if desired.
THE EMAIL
With recent changes in membership dues, it is likely that you (and many others), have considered the worth of your membership with STC. In keeping up with numerous other STC discussion lists, I can tell you that the common theme is that renewing your membership for 2010 is going to be more of a personal choice than it has been before.
So what do STC and STC Alberta offer you? I will address the concerns that I have read and heard about from other members across the global society and will provide a local perspective as both an STC member, and as a fellow technical communicator.
Educational Opportunities
The webinars offered via STC.org are a popular benefit and they recently expanded their offering to include online certification courses. As a member, you have access to all these things at discounted rates. Locally, we have our monthly educational programs. In 2009, we had a variety of topics ranging from financial planning, contracting, digital media, hardware technology, and many others.
Social Events
The perfect venue for networking! We've increased our social events from one a year to two or three. In response to member requests, our AGM (to be held in January) has become a more casual gathering rather than the sit-down-dinner event it used to be years ago. In Edmonton, our members get together for Coffee Nights, whereas Calgary members didn't attend Coffee Nights and they were discontinued years ago. Next year is STC Alberta's 30th Anniversary and we'll be holding a special social event in celebration of this milestone.
We plan our events (whether educational or social) based on feedback we get from event attendees; most of our attendees are STC members, but we do get some non-members too. At the end of our events, attendees fill in a survey of what they are interested in learning. We also did an online survey (via Survey Monkey) last February in order to provide a feedback opportunity to those members who didn't/couldn't fill out the survey in person.
New Heights
Our annual New Heights program brings in a renowned speaker to teach an all day course; this event requires months of planning and volunteer effort and is always sold out despite being our most expensive local offering; the program is usually around $300 (with earlybird incentives for members) and draws Edmonton and area members to Calgary. Non-members pay more to attend, but they do still attend because of the value. However, preference is always given to our members when seating is limited.
STC Publications
Both the Intercom magazine and Technical Communication journal are going to be delivered online. You can still choose to get hardcopies when you renew your membership. It will cost more to get the print out, but now you can choose one or both publications. The local newsletter, SuperScript, remains free to our members.
SuperScript
In the past year, we've made great strides in putting more information in our newsletter regarding member benefits. I wrote an article in the last issue of SuperScript regarding my personal experience with STC. See the Member Spotlight article in the Fall issue here: http://www.stc-alberta.org/Newsletter/newsletter.php.
Email Lists
Our email lists received some unwanted attention this year due to a technical glitch. But we've resolved that problem. Our announcement list is the most active and it is used to keep members in the loop about upcoming events. Most recently, we added a Jobline notification email as an extra perk for those members who are subscribed to the list.
Jobline
Our active jobline has been a good source of job leads for many of our members. Not only do employers and recruiters get to advertise for free, but our members get full access to the job postings by way of password protected webpages.
Salary Survey
The annual members-only Salary Survey is a key benefit which captures actual earnings of our peers which are generally different from the rest of Canada or American markets. Having local market information is priceless when negotiating salary. Sitting on the Canadian STC Presidents Committee, I'm proud to report that our Alberta survey is going to be the basis for a future Canada-wide salary survey that all Canadian STC members can participate in. We hope to implement this in 2010, so stay tuned!
Scholarships
STC Alberta has created scholarships and awards for students of technical communication at both Mount Royal University and Grant MacEwan University. As education becomes a more expensive endeavor, STC Alberta is there to help the future leaders of our profession stay focused on their studies.
A Diverse Offering
As you can see, we have a diverse offering for our members. We have adapted to the needs of our members. We have been fortunate to maintain a good level of volunteerism which has allowed us to freshen our perspective while continuing to serve our members better as the years go on. If you have any specific changes you'd like to see, there are probably other members thinking the same thing too. So, please do share your ideas with us.
Those are many of the main benefits of membership from a local perspective. For more on benefits, see https://www.stc.org/membership/
Cost of Membership
Yes, the cost of membership has increased.
This was a discussion that started just before the summer and I've written about it in the previous issues of SuperScript. Initially, STC forecasted raising rates to $300 to match the cost of servicing a member. We've discussed the impact of increased costs not only at society level, but at chapter level, and at a personal level. We are all “people buying a service” first, and whether our employer pays for our membership or we pay for it ourselves, we don't like to see our rates increasing. But as the STC offering has increased (as has the cost of doing business), the new rates of basic membership at $215 + 25 for a chapter are in line with other similar societies.
On a personal note, when I initially heard about membership costs going up, I researched other groups because I, too, felt that the cost was going up too much. The closest group I managed to find was IEEE's Professional Communication Society. I presented my research on IEEE to the Canadian STC Presidents Committee so that all presidents would be aware of what the alternatives to STC might be. Once the costs and offerings were compared, it was easy to see where the real benefit was. I value having a local chapter, and IEEE doesn't offer this (despite an additional charge to join the communication society), so for me, that was the deciding factor, and I accept that my membership is going to cost me $240. On a positive note, with our dollar doing so well, membership this year will cost me nearly the same as last year. My classic membership last year (190 USD) turned out to 237 CAD. Some STC members also revealed costs associated with other professional memberships they hold. From IABC to ASTD and a variety of lesser known associations, the costs were all fairly equal, but with noticeably fewer benefits. (Contact me if you want to see the actual research.)
Ultimately, staying with STC, or not, is a personal decision based on how well STC has served you, your career, and your profession as a whole. As I wrote in last month's Member Spotlight, STC has served me well for the past 10 years, and for that reason, I will maintain my membership with the society. To renew your membership, visit http://stc.org/membership/renew-your-stc-membership.asp. To discuss further, or to help make the Alberta Chapter better, please contact me directly at president@stc-alberta.org.